New rotation means stronger bullpen in 2011

[reillymcshane]

Adding Greinke and Marcum obviously improve our pitching in many ways. One thing many of us have noted is that the new pitchers should cause less strain on the bullpen. How much? Here's a quick look.

 

First, let's replace Davis, Capuano, Parra and Bush (64 starts) with Marcum and Greinke (also 64 starts). The four-headed 2010 pitchers tossed 342 innings in their 64 starts. Marcum and Greinke tossed 415 innings between them. That's a 73 inning difference.

 

Using 2010 starts and innings for Narveson, Gallardo, Wolf, Marcum and Greinke nets you 974 innings in 157 games. Add in five more starts at roughly five innings per start, that would put the Brewers right around 1,000 innings for their starters. In the NL, only SF (at exactly 1,000 innings) and Phil (1035) threw that many innings in 2010. The Brewers' starters threw 921 innings in 2010. This means the new staff has the potential to eat up an extra 80 innings in 2011 (assuming I figured this all out correctly).

 

80 innings is nothing to scoff at. It means, roughly, that every other game we need one less reliever (assuming a reliever throws 1 inning each time out). Or you can think of it as each reliever having to pitch 10-15% less than needed last year.

 

This means our relievers are less taxed. Their weaknesses are not as exposed as much. Teams don't get as familiar with them. And it gives the manager more options in the pen on any given night.

 

Of course, this all depends on players staying healthy, not imploding, etc. And Marcum and Greinke were in the AL last year, meaning the DH might have kept them in the game longer since they were not pinch hit for (or you could argue they got smacked around more with the stronger line ups, but that's the point here).

 

But an overworked bullpen often gets exposed down the stretch. Hopefully, the new starting rotation will help prevent this, and make the pen better in 2011.

[Hate those Rodents]

Love the research here. I don't have a lot to add, except that we'll be relying on talented but young arms and a talented old one in Saito. Being able to put the youngsters in spots where they can succeed and limit Saito's innings should make us have a great pitching staff and not just a great starting rotation.